History of the town of Carver, Massachusetts : historical review, 1637-1910, Part 2

Author: Griffith, Henry S. 4n
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: New Bedford, Mass. : E. Anthony & Sons, printers
Number of Pages: 504


USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Carver > History of the town of Carver, Massachusetts : historical review, 1637-1910 > Part 2


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Common violet


Purple geradia


Sabbatia (sea pink)


Sundew


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HISTORY OF CARVER


Gill-over-the-ground


Peppermint


Indian tobacco


Iron weed


Pickerel weed Robin's plantain Self heal


Lobelia (water)


Lupine Mad dog's skull cap


Spiderwort


Meadow violet


Thistle


Pennyroyal


Venus' looking glass


Red


Cardinal flower Pitcher plant


Wood lily


Green or Greenish White


Cow wheat


Dock


Poison ivy Staghorn


Grape (wild)


Virginia creeper


(wood-


Horse radish


Poison sumach


Weeds :


Sandwort


Chick weed


Velvet weed


Ground cherry


Wild pepper grass


Goosefoot


Pig weed


Pin weed


Miscellaneous


Butterfly weed


Cypress spurge Cat-tail


Ground nut


Hoary pea


Jack-in-the-pulpit Lousewort


Liveforever


Rabbits foot clover Scouring rush Sweet flag


Skunk cabbage


South Sea water bubble


Trumpet honeysuckle


bine) Pipewort


Carpet weed


Trumble weed


Sheep's bit


INDIANS


Unfortunately our main source of knowledge of our predecessors on this soil is founded on tra- dition, which is often a libelous story, for the human mind is not apt to minimize an event that struck terror to its infant conceptions. No voice of the Pawtuxets comes down to us in litera- ture, none of their architecture stands as a monu- ment to their art, yet we have many silent re- minders of their handiwork. A walk around the shores of our lakes, or across some newly plowed field, is frequently rewarded by some arrow head, pestle or war club upturned from its resting place. Thousands of these mementos are scattered through our homes and too often perhaps not fully appreciated for these are the only tokens that link our civilization with the lives of the children of nature that once inhabited this region.


And when we read of the cruelties of the Indians it is well to remember that this is the white man's story. The red man is silent. And lest we be unduly impressed with our own case we may recall that in 1698 the white man placed a bounty of fifty pounds on the scalp of an adult Indian and ten pounds on the scalp of a child under ten. Five years later the sport of hunting and scalp- ing children was abolished, while the practice of capturing them alive and selling them as slaves


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HISTORY OF CARVER


was substituted. Thus was the process of ex- terminating an inferior race turned to a source of profit to its superiors.


There were no Indians permanently located in the limits of the future town of Carver in 1620 or thereafter although roving bands strolled through the region occasionally. This rendered settlements hazardous and one Ephraim Tinkham who had squatted near Lakenham in 1650 was warned that unless he returned within the danger line he could expect no protection from the Colony.


After the close of King Philip's war Indians who settled here, with certain exceptions, enjoyed the rights conferred upon the whites, and their rights were looked after by Commissioners ap- pointed by the Governor. In 1702-03 the town of Plymouth voted a grant of land to Samuel Sonnett, an Indian, and his wife, Dorothy. This land, forming the basis of the Indian lands in Carver, was located on the southerly side of Sampson's pond, and bounds and measurements not being definite, it must have included consid- erably more than the area named, for it took in all the land between the Casey swamp and the pond, and extended from the Indian lot, so-called, to Sampson's brook. The bounds were more definitely established two years later by Surveyor William Shurtleff. The only incumbrance was the general law providing that land of Indians should not be sold without a permit from the General Court. Under the conditions of the vote the grantee and his heirs were guaranteed the


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INDIANS


right to fish in the ponds and streams and to gather tar and turpentine on the common lands.


The Seipets appear in town a few years later, possibly marrying into the Sonnett family. Bartlett Murdock, who had inherited the farm on the east side of the pond, employed one of these Seipet boys, who seems to have been endowed with the traditional cunning of his race. Among the anecdotes that illustrate the character of the boy is one that concerns the time when the South Meet- ing house was erected. The building had been framed and raised, when Murdock was horrified one early morning on beholding his Indian boy climbing carelessly over the skeleton. Ascending to the plate by the ladder, he walked up one of the outside rafters, thence the entire length of the ridge-pole, and down another rafter to the plate, from which he skipped nimbly to the ground. On another occasion young Seipet was sent out on an early morning to bring in a yoke of oxen for the day's work. His return was not expected promptly, for cattle ran at large and often strayed a long ways from the clearing; but not returning late in the afternoon, Murdock be- came alarmed and started out on horseback to learn the fate of his trusted employee. After covering a long distance he met Seipet returning with his cattle and with a good excuse for his tardiness. He had traced the oxen as far as Cranebrook pond, a distance of five miles, and as the ground was crossed and counter-crossed by cattle tracks, the master asked how he had fol- lowed the track, for in Murdock's eye there was


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HISTORY OF CARVER


no difference between the tracks of his own oxen and those of his neighbors. Seipet expressed sur- prise at the ignorance of his employer, as he replied : "You think Seipet not know his own ox tracks ?"


In 1780 this land was owned solely by the Seipets, and the Plymouth County Commissioners were authorized to sell as much of it as was necessary to pay the debts and give a comfortable support to Desire Seipet in her old age. The sale, effected in 1783, transferred a large part of the tract, and that on which the village of South Carver now stands, to Lieut. Thomas Drew. In 1810 Launa Seipet, also an aged woman, resided on the reservation. By special act of the General Court she was placed in the care of the Selectmen of Carver, and for her support another section of the Son- nett land was sold to Benjamin Ellis. This sale included what was left of the Indian land north of Bodfish Bridge road. It would appear that she was the last survivor of the family, and re- siding with her were two daughters, Betsey and Hannah. Betsey married, but died childless. Hannah married Augustus Casey, with whom she lived on the old clearing, where were born and reared Frank, Thomas, William, John, Joseph Young, Augustus Green, Hannah (married Turner), Betsey (married Phillips), and Sarah (married Jackson). Joseph and Thomas en- listed and saw service in the navy in the Civil war.


For the aid of some of the Casey heirs other tracts have been sold from the Sonnett land, until


BARRETTS POND From the Turner Field


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INDIANS


about forty acres remain, and that now known as "The Casey Place."


On the name our predecessors gave this region we can only speculate, for students and inter- preters of Indian language differ. By one it is given as Warkinguag; by another as Mahootset.


While we have a few Indian monuments in the way of landmarks, their meaning is veiled in mystery, and our efforts towards an interpreta- tion of them leaves us still unrewarded regarding the individual experiences of the red men who tilled these grounds before us. Weweantic is in- terpreted as a wandering stream; Winatuxett, the new found meadows; Quitiquas, the island place; Annasnapet, the small shell brook; Swan Hold, possibly a corruption of Sowhanohke, meaning the South land; Polypody, a place of brakes; Mahutchett, the place on the trail.


There are also many other names suggestive of history or mythology. King Philip's spring comes down to us with a bloody pedigree; the Pokanet field sings the fame of Pokanet, who prospered as the slave of the Shurtleffs, and whose camp was near the river in the field that now bears his name; Wigwam swamp; Indian burying ground; Indian brook, and Sampson's pond are suggestive names.


THE FIRST SPECULATORS


To comprehend the ground work of our present structure it is necessary to go back to the begin- ning and note through what various processes our ancestors came into possession of their land. The authority of the body that granted it is not in question, and who owned it previous to the white man's assumption has no place in the calculation. And so in our own language our history begins in the year 1620.


The first land system of the Colonists consisted in parceling out the land at the opening of the season, but this method so soon gave rise to dis- satisfaction that in 1624 permanent grants began to be made, and as the Colony grew the home- seekers began to branch out into the wilderness. While the town of Plymouth was never formally incorporated, its corporate life dates from 1636, and the region now within the limits of the town of Carver, being in the jurisdiction of the Pil- grim town, all land grants of this territory were made by the town of Plymouth.


Connecting the Indian village of Pawtuxet with Agawam and Nemasket were the two trails, Aga- wam path and Nemasket path. The former lead- ing over barren hills offered no attractions to the home-seekers, but the latter leading through fertile valleys, over running brooks and waving


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HISTORY OF CARVER


meadows, early caught the eye of the hardy souls that were crowded out of the settlement. Begin- ning in 1637 and ending with the incorporation of the town of Plympton, all of the land now in Plympton and Carver was granted by the mother town.


The marsh meadows were the chief attraction, and many of the grants were of the meadows alone, the grantees holding their residences in Plymouth. These grants were located at South Meadows,* Doty's meadows, Six-Mile brook, Mahutchett, Swan Hold, Beaver Dam brook, and Crane brook. By the end of the period sev- eral settlements had been made.


The first to take the Nemasket path was John Derby, who in 1637 took up a claim of sixty acres at Mounts hill, near the little lake that later be- came known as Derby pond. The following year he was joined by Thurston Clark, Edward Doty and George Moore, while Stephen Hopkins went still further into the woods and took a grant at Six-Mile brook. It is probable that this grant of Doty's was the first grant of land within the municipal limits of Carver, although the grant of one hundred and fifty acres in 1637-38 to John Jenney on either side of the brook was the germ of this town in the woods. By the terms of this


*The term South Meadows originally included. all of the meadow land on the Weweantic river from Swan Holt to Rochester, the lower meadows being referred to as the Lower South Meadows. The name was afterwards applied to the village of Centre Carver, which was known by no other name up to the time of the Civil war.


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THE FIRST SPECULATORS


grant it was constituted a farm within the juris- diction of Plymouth and to be known as Laken- ham.


The bounds of Plymouth were not definitely located until after the end of this period. A court order of 1640 adjusting the bounds between Plymouth and Sandwich provided that "the bounds should extend so far up into the woodland as to include the South Meadows towards Agawam, lately discovered, and the convenient upland thereto." For many years the western bounds were in dispute, and various conferences with the Proprietors of South Purchase were necessary before the dividing line was definitely established.


Nor were the individual grants definitely lo- cated and described. The records are evidence of the fact that many of the grants included a much larger area than their terms would indicate, and also of the frequent disputes among individ- ual grantees over ranges. In the latter part of the period town surveyors were annually elected, who were kept busy making surveys of earlier grants and placing their surveys on record.


It would be difficult to resurvey some of these grants from the recorded descriptions. The heap of stones and the red oak tree have long since passed from the stage, but out of these humble beginnings has grown our more exact method, and petty disputes, though not unknown, are not as frequent as of old.


The main grants before the year 1640, in addi- tion to those previously mentioned, were to John


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HISTORY OF CARVER


Pratt, at Wenham; Bridget Fuller, at Doty's; John Barnes, at Six-Mile brook (including up- land) ; John Dunham, at Swan Hold (including upland) ; Richard Sparrow and John Atwood, at Lakenham; and Goodman Watson, George Bonum and Andrew Ring, at South Meadows.


During the succeeding forty years grants of various dimensions were made along the South Meadow river to Andrew Ring, Abraham Jack- son, Jonathan Shaw, William Nelson, George Bonum, Ephraim Tinkham, Lieut. Morton, William Harlow, Nathaniel Morton, Hugh Cole, Joseph Bartlett, John Cole, Daniel Dunham, John Fflallowel, Samuel Doty, John Lucas, John Jourdan, John Waterman, John Barrows, Na- thaniel Wood, William Ring, Jonathan Barnes, Benony Lucas, Samuel Harlow, Richard Cooper, Ephraim Tillson, Thomas Pope and George Wat- son; at Lakenham to John Rickard, James Cole, Jonathan Shaw, Robert Ransom, George Watson, Daniel Ramsden and Benejah Pratt; at Doty's to Thomas Lettuce, John Rickard, Gyles Rickard, Jr., and John Pratt; at Mahutchett to Ephraim Tillson, William Haskins and Peter Risse; at John's pond to Samuel Savery; at Beaver Dam brook to George Watson; and at Wenham to John Dunham.


By the dawn of the 18th century the pioneers had a well established system of farms; grants were enlarged to take in nearly all of the upland, and the tide of population set in.


Before 1705 grants at Swan Hold were made to Joseph Dunham, John Pratt, Nathaniel Dun-


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THE FIRST SPECULATORS


ham, Micager Dunham, Benejah Pratt, Jeduthen Robbins, Eleazer Pratt, Joseph Pratt, Joseph Dunham, Sr., and Abial Shurtleff. These grantees were also given authority to construct a dam for flowing their meadows. Small tracts were granted at Popes Point to Joseph Churchill, George Morton and Edmund Tillson, while land formerly of George Watson was better described for the benefit of his grandson, Jonathan Shaw. Land that had been granted to Abraham Jackson, William Harlow and George Morton in New Meadows in 1698 was also more definitely de- scribed.


As these years mark the end of the individual grants by the town of Plymouth, and the grantees had reached the point where they would break away from the parent town of the Old Colony, it is well to note how their destinies were swayed by two important events of the first century. The first settlers of Plymouth were kept within a lim- ited area on account of marauding bands of In- dians, but after the spirit of the natives had been broken by the disastrous ending of King Philip's war, the drawback from that source was ended. And a few years later when the dethronement of James II. disposed of their twin enemy, Sir Edmond Andros, the Colonists rapidly increased under their new charter, meeting-houses sprung up in the forests, and New England entered en- thusiastically upon its remarkable career. It is also well to remember in considering these twin enemies of the early colonists, that the white man and the red man broke even.


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HISTORY OF CARVER


The indivadual grants, mostly of which have been named, with two general grants made before Plympton was incorporated, left the new town without any common land in its jurisdiction. The proprietors of the cedar swamp, as also the pro- prietors of the rest of the common land, hence- forth had jurisdiction in the division of these lands. A large portion of this common tract was located in the future town of Carver, consisting of the cedar swamp and the land south of it as far west as the easterly shore of Sampson's pond. It included about one-fourth of the modern town's area.


At a town meeting in Plymouth in 1701-02 an ordinance was passed dividing the cedar swamp,* and Jacob Thompson was chosen surveyor to make the division with John Bradford and Samuel Sturtevant as assistants. Under the provisions of the ordinance every freeholder was to have a share; every male child born in the town who had reached the age of twenty-one and who re- sided in town one-half of a share; any resident who succeeded an original proprietor, one share, unless said proprietor left a son; children to in- herit a share if the father was entitled to one; but under no conditions should anyone hold more than one share. Non-residents, except children as above noted, were prohibited from holding


*This vote included all of the cedar swamp in the town of Plymouth, which at that time embraced the future towns of Plympton, Halifax and Carver. Only the South Meadow and Doty swamps were in the future Carver, which accounts for the omission of Great Lots 19, 20 and 21 in this story.


A CORNER ON HEMLOCK ISLAND


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THE FIRST SPECULATORS


shares unless being the owner of at least one hun- dred acres of tillage land occupied by a tenant.


As this tract had so long been utilized as common property, this vote to end the custom provoked a contest that could not be avoided by a town vote. Committees were named to watch poachers; any proprietor convicted of cutting cedars pending the division for- feited his claim; and any poacher not being a proprietor was to pay a fine of twenty shillings for each tree. While the plan looked well on paper, the surveyor was in a sea of con- stant commotion. Some lots were better located than others; some had a superior growth; every proprietor had a choice; and it was several years before the division was made among the proprie- tors, while the disputes had not ended two cen- turies later.


Under the Thompson plan the swamp was di- vided into eighteen Great Lots, and these Great Lots subdivided in the process of division among the proprietors. Great Lots were intended to contain forty acres each, but they were not symmetrical in shape. Some began at a common point and extended in long triangles across the swamp; some were generally rectangular, and others cannot be described in geometrical terms. It would seem to a modern engineer that the swamp could have been divided with more regu- larity, but the ragged general form of the tract without including upland presented a problem that taxed the civil engineering of the times.


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HISTORY OF CARVER


There was still a greater disparity in the shape and size of the subdivisions. It is apparent that the surveyor placed a broad interpretation on the terms of his instructions and undertook to equalize the disparity in values by varying the size and form of the lots.


In 1828 Sylvanus Bourne resurveyed the swamp and pointed out inconsistencies in the Thompson plan, and filed a plan of his own. Modern sur- veyors consult both plans as a basis of surveys.


Doty's Cedar Swamp, situate in the Northerly section of the town, also came under the general grant, although independent of the large swamp. This was known as Great Lot No. 22 in the di- vision. The original owners were John Gray, John Holmes, Samuel Rickard and Josiah Rickard.


At a town meeting in Plymouth, February 9, 1701-02, the following ordinance was adopted :


"That every freeholder That hath ben soe for six years last past That hath not had 30 ackers of land Granted to them by the Inhabitants of the Town within 20 years last past shall have 30 acrees of land laid forth to them out of the Com- mons belonging to sd Town (by the persons here- after Named that are the Towns Committy or Trustees to act in ye Affare) or soe much land as to Make it up 30 acrees with what they have al- ready had Granted to them sience sd Tirme of years & its further voted That all Town born Children now Inhabitants in sd Town that have been Rated towards defray publick Charg in sd Town for 14 years last past shall have 30 acres


THE SHURTLEFF HOMSTEAD Birthplace of a numerous Family, and standing on the Farm that has stood in the Shurtleff Name for more than Two Centuries


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THE FIRST SPECULATORS


apece of land laid out to them out of sd Town Comons as abovesd & that None shall Take up aney Meadow ground or sedor swamps by vertue of this Grant and it further voted that every man May take up his share abovesd as ner to his own land as may be: and noe man shall take up sd land agnst an other mans Land until the owner of sd land doth Refuseth it & if two men doe pitch on one pece of land the Committy have hereby power to determine whose it shall be."


The Committee chosen at the meeting to effect the division was composed of Capt. John Brad- ford, Capt. James Warren, Left. Shurtlef, Left. Nath; Southworth, Insign: Nath: Morton and Samuel Sturtivant.


Before the town. committee had progressed far with the division, the town of Plympton was in- corporated and the common lands located in the two towns passed to the control of the Proprie- tors, two hundred and one, who organized by the choice of a clerk and adopted the style of The Proprietors of Plymouth and Plympton Com- mons. Thomas Faunce was the first clerk, and those who served in that position before the Pro- prietors' work was finished in 1790 were Samuel Bartlett, John Cotton and Rossiter Cotton.


At a general meeting of the proprietors, Capt. Warren, Benjamin Warren, Lieut. Shurtleff and Samuel Lucas were chosen as surveyors to make the division. The tract was located in the Eastern section of the present town of Carver and the Southern section of Plymouth. Under the plan of operations as devised by the surveyors it was


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HISTORY OF CARVER


first divided into ten Great Lots, and these sub- divided. The first Great Lot was cut up into 21 small parcels, the second into 22, the third into 22, the fourth into 21, the fifth into 20, the sixth into 20, the seventh into 19, the eighth into 18, the ninth into 18, and the tenth into 20. These total 201 parcels to be divided among the proprietors.


The next step in the division was to assign the freeholders to the several Great Lots. This was no small task, as each proprietor had a choice of position. And after the Great Lots had been as- signed to the individual owners the question of alloting the parcels to the individuals was taken up for solution, and another perplexing problem faced the surveyors. The proprietors of each Great Lot held meetings by themselves to draw for their parcels. The subdivisions were num- bered and each proprietor drew a number which in theory was to be the number of his lot. The drawings were not altogether satisfactory, and time was extended for the proprietors to trade, and it was upwards of eighty years before the work of the proprietors was finished.


The first Great line was described as follows : "Beginning at two pine trees marked numbered 1-2 standing at ye going over between ye Great West pond and a little pond at ye head of it rainging East South East 180 rods from two pine trees marked with a heap of stones between them at Cobb hill by South Meadow path and from the trees first mentioned the line extendeth South 15 Westerly by a rainge of trees to a maple tree marked numbered 1-2 standing at Pratts meadow


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THE FIRST SPECULATORS


and from thence the same course to ye town line thence beginning at the trees first numbered the line extends North 15 Easterly so far as to take in all the common land belonging to the Proprie- tors and all ye common lands lying to the west- ward of sd line to belong to ye first lot there being twenty one shares in the lot."


This was the line between the first and second Great Lots, the first lot comprising all of the com- mon land west of the line. The western line of the first great lot was naturally irregular ac- cording to the ranges of former grants. The pre- vious grants bordering the first lot on the west were those at South Meadows, George Barrows, Sampson's pond, and the land of Samuel Sonnett. The final owners of the first division of the first great lot were Samuel Lucas, Caleb Loring, Elisha Bradford, Thomas Holmes, William Harlow, John Andros, Benj. Eaton, Sr., Mr. John Rickard, Eleazer Pratt, Nathaniel Harlow, Nathaniel Jackson, John Pratt, Mecager Dunham, John Jackson, Nathaniel Dunham, Joshua Ransom, Elkaneth Cushman, John Carnes, John Bryant, Left. William Shurtleff and Mr. John Murdock.


The second lot fell to ( ?), Isaac King, Joseph King, Ephraim Cole, Ebenezer Eaton, Samuel Bryant, John Sturtevant, Samuel Rickard, Jo- seph Bradford, Nathaniel Howland, Joshua Pratt's children, Giles Rickard, John Curtice, Elisha Cobb, John Doty, Richard Everson, Adam Write, John Wood, James Cole, Daniel Dunham, George Barrows and Samuel Wing.


a


THE STURTEVANT HOUSE Built Before the Revolution.


A FEW EARLY LAWS


It is not the purpose of this work to deal in general history, but there are some timbers in the general structure so closely related to local development that a brief review is justifiable.


Our starting point in civil government was in the compact signed on board of the Mayflower in Provincetown harbor. In the wave of en- thusiasm in which the Pilgrims left their native country they made no calculation on the cost of the venture, but before landing they adjudged it prudent to make an agreement as a safeguard against a clashing of authority that might jeop- ardize the peace of the Colony, and on the wisdom of such a course their posterity has recorded the verdict "they builded better than they knew." And in our own day these words may be accepted as the basis of all just governments : "In ye name of God amen. We whose names are under-writ- ten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, Ireland king, defender of ye faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for ye glorie of God and advancemente of ye Christian faith, and honor of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves togeather into a civill body




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